Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-09-07
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PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.

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PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD.
God, on Withholding His visible pres
ence and His audible voice from man, has
not left himself without 4 witness; for the
visible creation shows forth his eternal
power and God-head, while the "firma'
ment showeth His handiWork."
Take plain man, in whose mind a vain
infidel philosophy has started no obstacles,
and you will find belief in God fixed
element in his creed. He believes the
earth is an extended plain. circumscribed
in its dimensions, reared upon solid
structure, and stationary in its position
but he believes God made it, because man
could not make it, and it did not make
itself. Proceed to induct him into tho
sublime mysteries of progressive science,
and demonstrate to his mind that the
earth, which he supposed to be hemmed
in by the overhanging horizon that skirts
it on every side, is of immense magnitude,
fettered, on one hand, with bonds of per-
petual ice, and, at the same time, expand
ing o'er the other in fiery suns; that its
surface is diversified with oceans OF un-
fathomed depths, and mountains of un-
trodden attitudes; and swarming tribes
whose strange dialects have never sound
ed in his ear. Convince him of it's spher-
ical form, and it's erial suspension; that,
instead of reposing in motionless lmmo-
bility, it is flying with thought-like veloci-
ty alorg the trackless azure, and bringing
in its diurnal revolutions, the alterations.
of day and night. Follow its magnificent
circle around the luminary Of day, and
see with what regularity the successive
positions of its annual revolution bring
the rolling seasons round-Winter and
summer-seed time and harvest-now
clothed with waving forests and tlowery
wreaths; there crusted with frost and
mantled with snow. Unfold 10 his vision
the great mass of being, then let him see
that this earth is but minor member OF
numerous family of worlds, all fitted up
as the abodes of life and intelligence and
the sun, which he considered but ball Of
fire, burning above and beneath him, is
the great central orb of his influence
through unmeasured distances, and bind
ing the remotest member in the circle Of
his attraction. He will stand bewildered
with the truth and majesty of God. Pro-
ceed, now, to show him that, notWith-
standing the amazing vastness of the solar
system-its plants and its satellites
diminutive is it when compared with all
the worlds which people immensity that,
to an eye which can at one glance encom-
pass the whole material creation, should
it be blotted from the map of being, 1t
would occasion no greater vacuum than
leaf falling in the solitude Of vernal for
est. Trace your progress Of Investigation
along the milky way that belts the azure
vaults; pass the glimmering nebulas, the
clustering consultations and scintillating
stars, where worlds on worlds, buried in
the profound of distance, sweep on in the
unbounded revelry through the universe
of endless expanse There, where thought
cannot follow, and bold fancy tires, tell
him that, so far from being on the con-
fines of nature, he is infinitely remote
from the vast profound of gloom or glory
where hangs the central scale that balances
creation. Would he turn blindly away,
and say, with the mad astronomer:
"There is no God" While the music of
the spheres is floating softly around him
as the echo of harpstring, he would re-
spond to the angelic song and shout "Great
and marvellous are thy works, Lord COO
Almighty" Go stand upon some land
scape, clothed in natures own simple
loveliness, where the wild-f1ower is scent
ing the, breeze, and the butterfly is revel-
ing in a paradise Of sweets; and where
| CIlG ldEk Is IettCiluS ICA yOuhE hSooiA' 3
their first hymn of praise. See there how
God leaves His impress. Look up into
heaven, which His invisible hand has
painted so deeply, beautifully blue, while
the sun is throwing light upon all beneath
his radiant track. See there how God has
flung out His sign and written His name.
90 out at nightfall upon some spreading
vale where repose the peaceful herds upon
their couch of turf, while the moon, like q
pearl in heaven, is scattering the iucld
corruscations of her silvery car, as though
a shower of the dust of diamonds were
sprinkling the shining air, and the starry
hosts that rejoice in her train are serenely
floating amid wavy undulations Of subll,
mated ether, and do you not see and feel
and know that there is God?
There is an everywhere present ana
presiding Deity. Themountain enthrones
him in its sun-lit grandeur-there His
smile Is in the tempest and His song IS on
the gale. The flying storm bears Him
upon its billowy folds-there His chariot
ia the cloud, and His voice is the thunder.
The sounding hoard of old ocean receives
His footsteps; for there the winds are His
wing with which he lashes its waves into
foam, or fans them into repose, while the
boom of rushing waters proclaim Him AL
mighty. When He stood upon the noun
tain He recorded His name in characters
of light upon it's heaven-pointing peak.
When He rode upon the storm, hanging
in the sky, and bending o'er the earth,
He left His sign in the rainbow; and when
He passed upon the deep, He spread it as
a mirror behind, to hold, in far.off ret1ec-
ton, the jewelled banner OF His realm:
From earth, which He has carpeted for
His footstool, and Heaven, which He has
sky-curtained for His throne, the sound OF
His name and the song of His praise are
borne in the mingled melody of human
tongues and angelic lyres.-Rer. Thomas
G.. LO,Ce.